Ethereum Delays Pectra Upgrade, Launches New Hoodi Network to Ensure Stability

• Pectra update postponed.
• “Hoodi” testnet launch.
• Ethereum Enhancement.

In a strategic move to ensure the stability and success of the upcoming Pectra update, the developers of Ethereum have decided to postpone the mainnet launch until April or May. The decision was made after bugs were identified in the Holesky and Sepolia testnets, and the team opted to launch a third testnet, called “Hoodi,” to monitor and fix the flaws.

“We discussed potential paths post-Holesky 10 and agreed on “Plan A”: launching a new testnet. This will allow us to test whether the validator exists, which is impossible on Holesky at the moment since the exit queue will take about 1 year to empty. All other Pectra functionality, including validator consolidations, can still be tested on Holesky and Sepolia,” revealed Tim Beiko, one of the developers.

The Hoodi testnet, scheduled to launch on March 17, is primarily intended to verify validator functionality, an aspect that could not be adequately tested on previous networks due to issues with the exit queue. Additionally, Hoodi will allow developers to monitor other aspects of the Pectra upgrade, such as validator consolidations, ensuring that all components are working properly before the mainnet launch.

“This option was chosen to prevent client teams from writing custom code to clear the Holesky output queue, which could lead to more bugs and delay work on Pectra fixes and Fusaka implementations. Hoodi will be released next Monday, March 17th, and will trigger the Pectra network upgrade on Wednesday, March 26th. The network will have the same configuration as mainnet and a similar validator count.” complemented .

After Pectra is successfully activated on the Hoodi network and the client teams have confirmed their trust, the development team will schedule the upgrade on the mainnet. However, Beiko explained that the scheduling will only occur after a minimum of 30 days have passed since the Hoodi fork, meaning the upgrade will not be released before April 25.

While Hoodi focuses on fixing bugs and verifying validator functionality, the Holesky and Sepolia testnets will continue to be used to test other aspects of the Pectra upgrade. After Pectra is complete, developers will focus on implementing Fusaka, an upgrade that aims to scale Ethereum’s layer 2 (L2) solutions.